Showing results by author "Duncan Weldon" in All Categories

What caused the financial mess we're in? And how do we get out of it? Two of the great economic thinkers of the 20th century had sharply contrasting views. John Maynard Keynes believed that government spending could create employment and longer-term growth. His contemporary and rival Friedrich Hayek believed that investments have to be based on real savings rather than increased public spending or artificially low interest rates. Keynes's biographer, Professor Lord Skidelsky, takes on modern-day followers of Hayek in a debate.

The UK is, at the same time, both one of the world's most successful economies and one of Europe's laggards. The country contains some of Western Europe's richest areas such as the South East of England, but also some of its poorest such as the North East or Wales. Looking into the past helps understand why. Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through tells the story of how Britain's economy and politics have interacted with each other from the time of the Industrial Revolution right up to the pandemic of 2020.

Wars are expensive, both in human terms and monetary ones. Since the 1640s, in the aftermath of the British Civil Wars, the phrase 'blood and treasure' has encapsulated these costs. Blood and Treasure examines why Genghis Khan should be regarded as the father of globalisation, how New World gold and silver kept Spain poor, why some economists think of witch trials as a form of 'non-price competition', how pirate captains were pioneers of effective HR techniques, how handing out medals hurt the Luftwaffe in the Second World War and why economic theories helped to create a tragedy in Vietnam.

Like an old war film? So do authors Robert Hutton and Duncan Weldon, who get together with celebrity chums to watch the classics of land, sea and air to see how they stand up today. What’s still great? What’s dated? Who’s the least believable German? Find out in the new season of the podcast formerly known as A Pod Too Far.